Michael Dean Drew, Threatening a Federal Judge, Florida 2024

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. – A Florida state inmate, Michael Dean Drew, 43, has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for mailing a threatening letter to a federal judge, in an attempt to extort a thing of value.

Drew, who is currently an inmate of the Florida Department of Corrections, was sentenced by United States District Judge Robert Hinkle. The sentence is to be served consecutively to Drew’s 30-year state sentence for dealing in stolen property and to his 28-month federal sentence for threatening a different federal judge. Acting United States Attorney Christopher P. Canova announced the sentence.

Drew pleaded guilty to the current charge on December 2, 2015. Court records show that Drew committed the stolen property offense in Jacksonville, less than two months after his release from the Florida Department of Corrections. He received the 30-year sentence under Florida’s Prison Release Reoffender law.

In 2006, Drew challenged the 30-year sentence in federal court in Jacksonville. Relief was denied in 2009. In 2011, Drew sent threatening letters to the federal judge who denied him relief and to a Florida Assistant Attorney General involved in those proceedings. Drew was charged with mailing threatening communications in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and sentenced to 28 months in prison in 2012.

In June 2015, Drew sent threatening letters to the federal judge who presided over his 2012 prosecution, still seeking relief on the underlying state conviction. Drew was being held at the Wakulla Correctional Institution when he wrote the letters.

Acting United States Attorney Canova praised the work of the United States Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Florida Department of Corrections, whose joint investigation led to the conviction in this case. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael T. Simpson.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. The office strives to protect and serve the citizens of the Northern District of Florida through the ethical, vigorous, and impartial enforcement of the laws of the United States.

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